"I see, so that's what happened during my absence... You did a great job bearing with all that."
Zombie nodded after Cranberry finished recounting all the events that happened while he was sealed away in the private treasury of the avatar of greed.
The carriage that they were traveling in was traversing various roads smoothly on its way towards the Prides mansion.
"Must have been hard."
"...!"
The blue undead smiled softly and reached out his right hand and started patting the head of the red-haired girl.
"Still, I don't understand how come the Envy family hasn't been punished for their actions. Gramps – what is that supposed to mean? First the centuries of kidnapping elves, then plotting against the pride family and using the Gluttony family to perform an open attack. Does Envys have something on the queen or something? I thought that the branch of their family that serves under the Greeds would be more than willing to step in and take their place. Why is Rambutan still the head of their house?"
Zombie turned his head and asked the silver-haired Carambola without ever stopping caressing Cranberry.
"Lord Rambutan is currently married to the elven woman, Salak, and poses as the shining example of progress and future without discrimination – young lord Mason is being trained to become the next avatar which would make him the first half-elf in such position. As for the plotting – my former master's death is used as a pity card played against any and all allegations. Since she had been a registered heir to the throne of envy at the time of her demise, the loss is considered far greater than deaths of some servants."
The old gentleman explained calmly, though his eyes looked quite terrifying as he recounted all of that.
"Didn't Prides lose the avatar of sin? How come that doesn't play into this? No matter what repugnant filth of a human being she was in person, lady Raspberry's position should not be so easily dismissed."
"!!!"
Zombie pointed out, feeling Cranberry flinch once her birth mother's name was said.
"That is undeniably true but the Envy family pushes that part of responsibility onto the sigil monster that showed up."
Carambola scoffed and shook his head in powerless anger.
"Bullshit. Didn't you yourself confirm that the werewolf who became the sigil monster was in fact the member of the Envy family who stole the transformation skill from one of the Gluttony people?"
Zombie scoffed, barely able to stop himself from spitting to the side, and waved his left hand dismissively while the other was still on Cranberry's head.
"Yes, and I repeated that to the royal investigators, but my account was discarded because Envy's declared that my loyalty skill makes it so I can't say anything against my master."
The old man sighed and looked down, gritting his teeth in anger.
"Does it do that?"
Zombie raised his brows and asked curiously.
"No. I can say whatever I want unless there will be something very specific that my master will order me to say or deny seeing it."
The old man shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the blue undead.
"How come you didn't walk into the Envy mansion and massacred them all?"
Zombie asked him in genuine shock – causing the old man to smile in amusement.
"First of all, that would reflect badly on my current master. Besides, I've heard that recently little Rambutan had finally leveled up his Invidia quite a bit. It would be easy for him to steal my skills and the whole revenge would end up as suicide with additional steps."
"...!"
Carambola explained in a gentle tone that made Cranberry flinch.
"I see. Hey, gramps. How about it? Once I help Roan get the Miririri out of the pickle, why don't the two of us go to the Envy territory with a friendly visit?"
"Zombie!"
The blue undead smiled back at the silver-haired gentleman and asked him using the exact same tone as he did, causing the red-haired girl to call out a warning.
"Shhh."
The blue undead shushed the girl and pulled her down, giving her an unexpected lap-pillow while continuing to pat her head as if she was a needy cat.
"Don't worry, we won't leave you out of the fun when the time comes – I want to see that ancient magic spells in action after all."
"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Zombie smiled leaning down and playfully rubbing the tip of his nose against Cranberry's nose – apparently setting her face on fire – judging by how hard she was blushing because of his action.
|Aww, look at how cute she is. Cranberry from the first playthrough would be super pissed if I silenced her like that.|
The blue undead laughed internally, watching the fidgety girl on his lap gaze back at him with sparkling eyes as if even though embarrassed she was waiting for more affection to come her way.
|HA! No, she would not.|
The sealed being inside of him scoffed, sounding as if she was shaking her head over the outrageous claim that he made.
|Care to elaborate what do you mean...?|
|No.|
Zombie asked, but the sealed being's response sounded as if she turned her back on him while saying it.
"I hate to disturb an intimate moment of the married couple, but we're almost at our destination – I would advise postponing it until you two are alone... or I can stand outside and guard the carriage."
Carambola let out a soft unintrusive cough and declared while looking out of the window.
"Ah! We can't be forgetting ourselves! I want you to meet someone!"
Cranberry instantly sprung up from Zombie's lap and gasped all excited – leaving the confused blue undead looking between her and Carambola, raising his brow.
But before he could ask who was forgetting themselves, the carriage stopped and the coach person jumped down and opened the door for them.
"Your lordships, we've arrived at the Prides mansion."
The brilliantly dressed man bowed down at the ninety-degree angle and make space for the passengers to exit.
"Almost there, huh?"
Zombie made a bitter expression and squinted his eyes at the silver-haired gentlemen.
"Was I wrong?"
Carambola looked to the side, playfully dodging eye contact.
"...Zombie..."
"...?"
Suddenly, the blue undead felt that Cranberry is tugging on his sleeve, so he leaned towards her to hear her out.
"Don't get mad at him. During those four years, I've noticed that Carambola likes to innocently tease people that he likes."
The red-haired girl leaned down and whispered to the blue undead's ear.
|Oh? Did you hear that? I suddenly feel like I don't want to kill this gramps as much anymore.|
Zombie smirked outwardly while giggling internally.